Therefore, while the Commission encourages the applicants to provide moderately priced accommodations that enhance public opportunities for coastal recreation, it does not require that the overnight room rates be fixed at any specific amount.

C.

Scenic Resources

The certified Long Beach LCP and Section 30251 of the Coastal Act require that the scenic and visual qualities of the project area be considered and protected as a resource of public importance. Section 30253 of the Coastal Act protects popular visitor destinations like the Downtown Shoreline area where the hotel is proposed.

Section 30251 of the Coastal Act states in part that:

The scenic and visual qualities of coastal areas shall be considered and protected as a resource of public importance. Permitted development shall be sited and designed to protect views to and along the ocean and scenic coastal areas...be visually compatible with the character of surrounding areas...

Section 30253(5) of the Coastal Act states:

New development shall:

(5) Where appropriate, protect special communities and

neighborhoods which, because destination points for recreational

of their uses.

unique

characteristics,

are

popular

visitor

In its prior actions on LCP amendments, Coastal Development Permit 5-98-156 and permit amendments for the Pike project, the Commission has considered and addressed the overall project’s effects on scenic resources in Downtown long Beach. In 1995, when the Commission first incorporated the City’s Queensway Bay Development Plan (which includes the Pike development) into the certified LCP by approving LCP Amendment No. 1-95, it required that specific policies be included into the plan to protect the scenic resources of the Downtown Shoreline area (e.g., view corridors, building mass limits and height limits). In 1998, the Commission re-visited the certified LCP policies that limit building heights and protect specific view corridors on the project site as part of the Commission’s certification of LCP Amendment No. 2-98A, which included revisions to the City’s previously certified Queensway Bay Development Plan.

The currently certified Long Beach LCP contains a map (LCP Attachment A) that identifies the special view corridors in LCP Subareas 5 and 6 that must be protected in order to provide views from the land to the water. The protected view corridors in LCP Subareas 5 and 6 include: a 410-foot long view corridor/open space area on Shoreline Wharf, the air space above the Terraces at the terminus of Pine Avenue, the Pine Avenue Pier corridor, the sixty- foot wide Pine Avenue view corridor and its extension to the water, a sixty-foot wide view corridor extending southeast from the intersection of Pine Avenue and Shoreline Drive, and a sixty-foot wide view corridor at the intersection of Aquarium Way and Shoreline Drive (Exhibit #3).